I made a batch of bay rum AS, and was surprised by how little liquid resulted. From a starting measure of 20 ounces, I ended up with barely one cup. I can understand losing some volume during straining/filtration, but this seems way out of line. I presumed (from the recipes I found) that one would end up with roughly the same amount of liquid at the end -- sort of like soaking lemon zest to make limoncello. Additives included cinnamon sticks, cloves, ground allspice, zest from one orange, black peppercorns, fresh lavender/fresh rosemary sprigs, and bay essential oil. Could the solid materials *really* have absorbed that much liquid?
It's similar to making chai tea from scratch. The herbs will soak in some of the water, in particular the harder one's like cinnamon sticks and clove. Always add a little extra and squeeze the contents of the filter.
Hmmm...I used virtually the same ingrediants for two of my home made bay rums. Of course the cinnamon sticks and leaves soak up some liquid, but my yields were no where near that minimal. Not even close, but I would have no idea why. Nice to see another diyer here!!
Well, I dont know if I can add much in that I'm unaware how the elixir was stored, the ratio of liquids to solids, the temps, etc. With the batch I made back in 2013, I anticipated some liquid loss in the process (see final result in post#28 of this thread Making Bay Rum ) but nothing of note.
Thanks to all. I'm with HolyRollah: I expected *some* loss (given the dry ingredients, and the paper filters) but it was roughly 60% of the original volume! I used four cinnamon sticks, a tsp of crushed cloves, ground allspice, the zest of one orange, and a few sprigs of fresh rosemary and lavender from my backyard. I used a mason-type glass jar, stored in the pantry, and had 20 oz vodka/rum at the outset. I have another batch brewing (this time with grapefruit and lime zest). Be interesting to see how much I end up with this time.
Just wanted to close out this thread. I'd been running two batches simultaneously, and discovered that the really-low-amount jar didn't have the greatest seal. I suspect plain old evaporation (plus removing the lid for many sniff tests) was the culprit. Thanks again to everyone.
Here's the recipe, with some upfront caveats: My only bay rum reference point is Pinaud's, which is very "clovey." Originally, I basically scaled up and tweaked the recipe from The Art of Manliness: http://www.artofmanliness.com/2010/01/21/diy-bay-rum-aftershave/ (adding some fresh lavender and fresh rosemary). One batch used orange zest; the other was zest from one grapefruit plus three limes. I used Pimenta racemosa EO -- another substance I'd never used before -- and realized afterward that I'd used WAY too much. The bay scent overpowered everything else. The following recipe is the stuff I'll be handing out to the "younger guys" in my family for Christmas. The bay scent is there; the spices are subtle, and citrus is a dominant note. Kinda wish I'd used more spice. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> One liter vodka 12 oz Bacardi gold rum 1 tsp ground allspice 1-1/2 tsp allspice berries, coarsely ground 8 crushed cinnamon sticks (about 4" long, each) 1 tsp. peppercorns, cracked 2 tsp. whole cloves, cracked Zest of four oranges* 1/4# fresh ginger, peeled and shredded Ten sprigs of lavender** 20 drops bay oil 12 oz. witch hazel *I used a vegetable peeler to carefully strip off the zest, and then snipped it into small pieces; some guys use microplanes instead. **I got the lavender from my garden, and just lopped off a good handful. Everything (except witch hazel) went into a couple of mason jars, and the usual steeping/shaking went on for about six weeks. Filtered it like crazy, and the witch hazel goes in today; I'll just let it mellow until I re-bottle it next month. I like it...but it sure doesn't resemble Pinaud!